68 C50 Looongbed pickup build

[Advanced Design]

Richard, you are moving right along. With a tele-handler and Bobcat you don't need no wimpy lift to help out...sounds like the 89 will be put to good use.

Appreciate you checking in on the Burb build!

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Richard, you are moving right along. With a tele-handler and Bobcat you don't need no wimpy lift to help out...sounds like the 89 will be put to good use.

Appreciate you checking in on the Burb build!

Thanks for the props Doug, the exhaust on your burb is looking good. I like the jig you built to hold things up. Sometimes figuring out how to do stuff by yourself is half the fun!

-Richard

[rkn463]

I had several weekends where I either did not get to work on the truck or so little progress was made that it wasn't worth posting. So here is where it stands now. The next step after removing the cab was to remove the gas tanks so that I could get the rest of the rivets out. There was a shocking amount of hoses and wiring. I finally got all of that out of the way and drained the remaining fuel using an electric fuel pump:

[rkn463]

next I dragged it outside and hit it with the power washer, I like the Chevy orange transmission.

[rkn463]

So now on to last weekend, I came equipped with degreaser and paint, washed it again and then got on to the last twelve rivets!

[rkn463]

I finally cut the frame weekend before last. I had planned on an angle cut but I had two engineers on hand that advised to go with the straight cut. Keep in mind that the reinforcing plates will be reinstalled and I'll fish-plate it on the inside of the channels.

I like really straight cuts so I started by clamping a square onto the frame with vice grips and then tapped it until it was perfectly flush with the frame, then I used wide tape against the square and wrapped it down. Then I moved the square 18 inches down and repeated. I measured a couple of places down the side to make sure my tape lines were perfectly parallel. Then I went back and added some "control" markers at 48 inches so that I can measure them on each side to make sure that I'm welding it back together straight. Finally with all of the tape in place and the measurements all verified to be within 1/32 accuracy I braced it up to make the cuts. We have a chain-hoist that I used to hold up the front half (used a rock bar to span the two sides to hook it to) and I used a floor jack for now on the back. I removed the front half of the driveshaft, the rear wiring harness and the brake line and commenced to cutting. I used my DeWalt 4.5" angle grinder with 1/8" cutoff wheel and got started. The sparks flying off those cutoff wheels was burning the hair on my left arm and it smelled terrible! It cut fairly easy and I made all four cuts and only used up 4 cutting wheels, actually just a bit less.

Here are some pictures:

[rkn463]

A few more pictures of the cuts:

[rkn463]

So this last weekend I did not get to work on the truck at all. We were hauling hay during which time my 2005 Duramax decided to go in to limp home mode (nothing over 2k RPM) and then after shutting it down wouldn't start at all. I can't tell you how frustrated I was. We tried bleeding the filter and got a couple of air bubbles and then clean fuel. The Monday my brother tried it again and it started and is running fine now. The worst part is it did not set any codes in the computer so there is noting to go diagnose except symptoms and I don't trust it anymore.

Anyway, I hope to get the frame welded back together this coming weekend. The driveshaft shop called today to let me know they had finished shortening it and that it was ready to pick up. If I get the frame welded back together then I can start on reattaching the reinforcing plates, then I have a lot of gaskets and seals to replace before I put the 68 body on. Stay tuned...

-Richard

PS a nice picture of hay in the barn:

[Advanced Design]

Richard, that was some nice progress on the frame. I wonder why the engineers suggested a straight cut. I've read straight cut is good and others strongly suggest a z cut. And I know we shortened frames on big trucks with a straight cut for oil field / construction work. They held up for years of heavy use. I was just a kid then helping Pop.

Good looking hay collection. We use to put up the small round bales that needed hay hooks for handling. Tough work.

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Richard, that was some nice progress on the frame. I wonder why the engineers suggested a straight cut. I've read straight cut is good and others strongly suggest a z cut. And I know we shortened frames on big trucks with a straight cut for oil field / construction work. They held up for years of heavy use. I was just a kid then helping Pop.

Good looking hay collection. We use to put up the small round bales that needed hay hooks for handling. Tough work.

Hi Doug, thanks for checking in. The engineers are my brother (mechanical engineer) who said I'll never get anywhere near the design capacity of the truck and my cousin's husband (petroleum engineer) who pointed out that the extension welded into the frame of the motorhome that he was visiting in used straight cuts and those with fish plates and no outer reinforcing plates like mine will have. The perfectionist in me cringed but I powered through and made the straight cuts!

PS I'm still loving your burb build!

[flashed]

I dont know how I missed this build but Im in to see more .

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by flashed

I dont know how I missed this build but Im in to see more .

Glad to have you along for the ride!

-Richard

[rkn463]

Independence day (weekend) update:

OK, time to weld the frame back together. The first thing was to make sure that we had the right electrode for the wire welder. The 89 FSM had the specs so I went and checked what we had in the MIG. Turns out it was what we needed. I'll leave the welding theory to others but basically the difference between the 3 and the 6 at the end of the spec was new metal vs. old metal and mine is 30 years old

[rkn463]

Good to go, now it is time to drag the two pieces of the frame together and check my cut. For what ever reason the back half wasn't wanting to roll easily so I dragged it together with a come along. Initial fit for the cuts looked OK, but somehow the width was off by about 3/32. A quick measurement showed that the back part was wide, the front was what it should.

[rkn463]

I decided to use a come along to pull the back half back together, it worked well although initially I found that I needed to be between two teeth on it so I added a piece of 1x1 box tube to take up some slack and it hit perfect. After that I had to grind the welds for a perfect mating surface and square to my "control" lines. I was happy with the results.

[Softpatch]

Originally Posted by flashed

I dont know how I missed this build but Im in to see more .

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I'm with this guy
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holly smoke there some good stuff in her....
Thanks for posting ...Sp
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http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=504416&page=2
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http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=704713
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http://www.stemco.com/f/qbin/STEMCO_Kaiser_2013.pdf
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[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Softpatch

.
I'm with this guy
.
holly smoke there some good stuff in her....
Thanks for posting ...Sp
.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=504416&page=2
.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=704713
.
http://www.stemco.com/f/qbin/STEMCO_Kaiser_2013.pdf
.
.

Softpatch, I'm really glad to know that you are looking in on my build. I've followed your 59 Viking revival, that is an awesome truck and you are doing a great job of bringing it back to life! Sometimes I regret not keeping the 68 drivetrain stock, but the 89 was just a dream to drive by comparison. I hope to have some more to post next week.

-Richard

[rkn463]

Hi folks, been a while since I updated. Weekend of July 9th we had family in for the weekend, I got to meet my little 3 year old great niece and great nephew (twins). They were really cool kids and we all had a great time. That did not leave me much time for the project but I did manage to finish cleaning up the intake and valve covers and paint them. Unfortunately my phone deleted all 122 pictures in the "camera" folder along with 5 other folders. I won't go in to how mad I am at Samsung right now but to say the least this was the last straw and I'll never own another one of their unreliable products.

This weekend started early with a bit more recreational mowing but this time I brought out the big guns. You can get a lot of mowing done when you cut a 15 foot wide swath!

Now for a couple more random pictures, somewhat out of order. This weekend was about getting the motor cleaned up and painted along with getting the repainted non-smog motor intake and valve covers installed. Part of that involved stripping the front accessories off of the engine but I needed to do something about the master cylinder first. I had left it connected and just used baling wire to hold it to a piece of box tubing that I had wired down to the engine brackets. I had to come up with something different so I started looking around and found a couple of holes in the frame that I could bolt to, so I drilled a piece of box tubing that I mounted to the frame and the master to that. Now it is up and out of the way. You can kind of see how it was before and a pretty good after shot.

[rkn463]

Next it was time to remove the distributor so that I could get the intake off. I marked and removed all of the wires then I marked the back of the distributor and the motor so that I would have a reference to put the timing back where it started. Then I removed the cap and rotated the motor until the rotor cap was pointing straight to the front. I removed the clamp and pulled the distributor out and put a mark on the distributor housing showing how far it rotated when pulling it so that I would be able to stab it back into the exact same orientation.

I wanted to tape over a couple of openings before I blew it off with the air hose and couldn't find my tape. I got to looking around and found that at some point it fell, landed on top of the exhaust pipe and balanced there, what are the odds? I wish I had just won the lotto instead!
Pictures:

[Advanced Design]

That was some very nice work on the frame! Very clean.

Two thermostats was interesting as I've never seen that before. Moving right along.

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

That was some very nice work on the frame! Very clean.

Two thermostats was interesting as I've never seen that before. Moving right along.

Thanks for checking in Doug, I can't wait to see what is next on your Burb!

-Richard

[tommys72]

Ive never seen this build...but im watching now

[jhama78]

This thing is going to be awesome when its done. Looking forward to seeing it completed.

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by jhama78

This thing is going to be awesome when its done. Looking forward to seeing it completed.

Hi j-rod, I just hope it turns out close to what I'm picturing in my mind. Thanks for tagging along.

-Richard

[rkn463]

Originally Posted by tommys72

Ive never seen this build...but im watching now

Glad to have you along for the ride, and thank you for your service to our country!

-Richard